KKR, Pai and Carlyle are interested in the Bridgepoint herbicide business

Bridgepoint begins to outline the process of selling its herbicide and pesticide business, Rovensa (the former Sapec Agro), which will start in the coming weeks. A good number of funds, among which KKR, Pai Partners and Carlyle stand out, are approaching different advisors with the objective of participating in this auction, all of which indicates that it will be one of the most competitive transactions of the year. Financial sources value the firm in a price range of between 700 and 800 million euros.

At the moment, the operation advisors (HSBC and Uría Menéndez) are just designing the process, which will be developed throughout this year 2020. The same sources consulted point to Permira, CVC, Blackstone, Cinven, Eurazeo or Partners like other possible interested in getting hold of this company. However, it is not ruled out that some industrial competitor can take over this asset.

The former Sapec Agro Business is one of the youngest investees of Bridgepoint, which entered into its shareholding at the beginning of 2017 with the disbursement of 456 million euros. In fact, the intention of the manager led in Spain by Hector Pérez was to wait a couple more years for the divestment, but the appetite of the private capital managers has made them take the decision to launch this process, as advanced the Economist. Since the entry of Bridgepoint, the Spanish company has grown to become an international reference group that sells its products to more than 80 countries. It has factories, research centers and laboratories in Brazil, France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

International development

The objective of the entry of this manager in its shareholding was to provide the company with enough financial lungs to undertake its ambitious international expansion plan and the development of new products in the field of what is known as agrobusiness. In this sense, in the last two years the turnover of the group has grown by 44.3%, from 237 million in 2017 to 342 million in 2019. The forecast for 2022 is 500 million euros and a gross operating result (ebitda) over 900 million euros.